COURTESY: MEDLIFE
MEDLIFE, a national non-profit with a mission of helping families achieve greater freedom from the constraints of poverty, came to The University of Mississippi campus in March. The chapter was begun by alumni Melissa Knight and Laura Beth McDonald in an attempt to empower impoverished families by working to improve their access to MEDs: Medicine, Education and Development. The organization believes access to quality healthcare is a basic human right.
The idea to found the University of Mississippi chapter began with Knight’s interest in Doctors Without Borders, an organization one cannot join until after attending medical school. MEDLIFE is able to serve as a great compromise for students who want to gain medical experience during their undergraduate years.
McDonald now serves on the student advisory board for the South expansion of MEDLIFE, so she is in charge of the majority of the SEC chapters.
“I became involved with MEDLIFE because of their belief that time is more important than money,” McDonald said. “They believe that spending time with communities that want to be helped is more important than throwing money at a group leader and saying ‘good luck from America.’”
The university’s chapter helps member attend Mobile Clinics in various international locations, so as to accomplish the goal of improving low-income families access to better healthcare.
“We really want to give college students and people of all ages the opportunity to experience another culture and serve others in the process,” said Madeleine Dear, Ole Miss’s MEDLIFE president and junior pre-pharmacy major.
There are currently about 400 members in the Ole Miss MEDLIFE chapter, 50 of which are considered active. These members pay a chapter fee of $20 and attend bi-monthly meetings. Students are sent on one-week, individually-funded trips to different locations throughout Ole Miss school breaks. Specifically, students go to Ecuador, Peru and Tanzania on Mobile Clinics trips for mission work. This past summer, the MEDLIFE Mobile Clinics trip was to Tena, Ecuador.
“I fell in love with everything this organization stands for,” said Caroline Cheatham, the university’s MEDLIFE vice president of public relations and senior exercise science major. “I was there for eight days, and, for five of them, we did nothing but mission work. This experience made me realize just how fortunate we are in America, where healthcare and proper bathroom sanitation is so accessible.”
The Mobile Clinics trip was the only time some residents were able to see a doctor for at least a year. During the trip to Ecuador this summer, MEDLIFE was able to provide healthcare to 1,232 people and also build a bathroom for a local school as part of their development project.
The university’s MEDLIFE chapter received the Rising Star award for being a new chapter on the rise due to its size growing so quickly and also for providing its members with four trips to attend this past year. MEDLIFE’s next service project is a volunteer day for More-than-a-Meal, which they will be sponsoring March 3, and they will also be participating in the Big Event.
“In my small time serving MEDLIFE, I have seen how eye-opening this organization can be,” Dear said. “We are looking forward to partnering with the individual schools within Ole Miss to really use our strengths to serve those around the world and within our own community.”
